The civil lawyers examined the deed.<\/p>\n
They found the same handwritten number.<\/p>\n
It appeared on three other property transfers.<\/p>\n
All three involved people who had been arrested by Sheriff Voss.<\/p>\n
All three properties had been purchased by Pinecrest Holdings.<\/p>\n
And all three had been sold for far less than their assessed value.<\/p>\n
The number was not a case number.<\/p>\n
It was an internal code.<\/p>\n
A code used by the county clerk's office.<\/p>\n
The lawyers traced it to a ledger.<\/p>\n
The ledger showed that the property transfers had been processed before the owners had signed the final documents.<\/p>\n
Some of the signatures were missing.<\/p>\n
Others had been witnessed by people who later testified that they had never seen the owners sign.<\/p>\n
One document had been notarized on a Sunday.<\/p>\n
The notary was the sheriff's brother-in-law.<\/p>\n
Another document listed a witness who had died six months earlier.<\/p>\n
The lawyers asked the court to reopen the property cases.<\/p>\n
The judge agreed.<\/p>\n
The county clerk was subpoenaed.<\/p>\n
Her name was Martha Bell.<\/p>\n
She had worked in the office for twenty-three years.<\/p>\n
She had been charged with conspiracy and obstruction.<\/p>\n
She had pleaded guilty.<\/p>\n
Now she was cooperating with the civil investigation.<\/p>\n
She testified that Sheriff Voss had visited her office several times.<\/p>\n
He had brought documents.<\/p>\n
He had asked her to process them quickly.<\/p>\n
Sometimes he had asked her to change the dates.<\/p>\n
Sometimes he had asked her to remove a name from a notice.<\/p>\n
She said she had believed he was acting on behalf of the county.<\/p>\n
Then she admitted that she had known some of the transfers were wrong.<\/p>\n
The lawyer asked why she had done it.<\/p>\n
She looked down.<\/p>\n
"Because I was afraid of him."<\/p>\n
The lawyer asked whether she had received money.<\/p>\n
She nodded.<\/p>\n
"Yes."<\/p>\n
"How much?"<\/p>\n
"Twenty-seven thousand dollars."<\/p>\n
The courtroom was quiet.<\/p>\n
Martha Bell began to cry.<\/p>\n
She said she had used the money to pay off her mortgage.<\/p>\n
She said she had been ashamed.<\/p>\n
She said she had told herself the owners would eventually get their property back.<\/p>\n
Then the lawyer asked about Hattie Greene.<\/p>\n
Martha looked at the table.<\/p>\n
"She came to my office."<\/p>\n
"When?"<\/p>\n
"About two weeks before she was arrested."<\/p>\n
"What did she want?"<\/p>\n
"She wanted a copy of her deed."<\/p>\n
"Why?"<\/p>\n
Martha swallowed.<\/p>\n
"She said somebody had been asking about her land."<\/p>\n
The lawyer asked whether she had given Hattie the copy.<\/p>\n
Martha nodded.<\/p>\n
"Yes."<\/p>\n
"Did you know that the property was going to be transferred?"<\/p>\n
She looked toward the jury.<\/p>\n
"Yes."<\/p>\n
"Did you tell her?"<\/p>\n
Martha shook her head.<\/p>\n
"No."<\/p>\n
The lawyer waited.<\/p>\n
Martha wiped her eyes.<\/p>\n
"I should have."<\/p>\n
I watched from the back of the courtroom.<\/p>\n
I had no role in the case.<\/p>\n
I was there because Evelyn had asked me to attend.<\/p>\n
I sat beside Aunt Lorraine.<\/p>\n
She held a small notebook in her lap.<\/p>\n
She had written Hattie's name on the cover.<\/p>\n
The testimony continued.<\/p>\n
Martha explained that the sheriff had told her the property transfers were necessary for the highway project.<\/p>\n
He had said the owners would be compensated.<\/p>\n
He had said the paperwork was temporary.<\/p>\n
Then he had told her not to ask questions.<\/p>\n
She had obeyed.<\/p>\n
The lawyer asked whether she had ever seen Hattie Greene after the arrest.<\/p>\n
Martha nodded.<\/p>\n
"At the jail."<\/p>\n
"When?"<\/p>\n
"The day before she died."<\/p>\n
"Why were you there?"<\/p>\n
Martha looked down.<\/p>\n
"I brought a document for her to sign."<\/p>\n
The courtroom became silent.<\/p>\n
"What document?"<\/p>\n
"A property release."<\/p>\n
The lawyer asked whether Hattie had signed it.<\/p>\n
Martha shook her head.<\/p>\n
"No."<\/p>\n
"Why not?"<\/p>\n
"She couldn't hold the pen."<\/p>\n
The lawyer paused.<\/p>\n
"Was she receiving medical care?"<\/p>\n
Martha began to cry.<\/p>\n
"No."<\/p>\n
The lawyer asked whether she had told the sheriff that Hattie was too ill to sign.<\/p>\n
Martha nodded.<\/p>\n
"What did he say?"<\/p>\n
She closed her eyes.<\/p>\n
"He said we would get another signature later."<\/p>\n
I felt Aunt Lorraine's hand tighten around mine.<\/p>\n
The lawyer asked whether Hattie had died before another signature could be obtained.<\/p>\n
Martha nodded.<\/p>\n
"Yes."<\/p>\n
The courtroom was quiet.<\/p>\n
The judge called a recess.<\/p>\n
I walked outside.<\/p>\n
The sky was gray.<\/p>\n
Rain was beginning to fall.<\/p>\n
I stood beneath the courthouse awning.<\/p>\n
Aunt Lorraine joined me.<\/p>\n
She looked at the rain.<\/p>\n
"Your grandmother used to say that the truth always comes out."<\/p>\n
I smiled.<\/p>\n
"She also said never trust a man who doesn't return a borrowed tool."<\/p>\n
Lorraine laughed.<\/p>\n
Then she became serious.<\/p>\n
"Do you think Hattie knew?"<\/p>\n
I looked at her.<\/p>\n
"That they were trying to take her land?"<\/p>\n
"Yes."<\/p>\n
I thought about the deed.<\/p>\n
The letters.<\/p>\n
The property transfers.<\/p>\n
The sheriff's arrest.<\/p>\n
"I think she suspected."<\/p>\n
Lorraine nodded.<\/p>\n
"She was a smart woman."<\/p>\n
We stood quietly.<\/p>\n
Then she said something I had not expected.<\/p>\n
"I want to help Evelyn."<\/p>\n
I looked at her.<\/p>\n
"How?"<\/p>\n
"With the land."<\/p>\n
She had a small savings account.<\/p>\n
She had kept it for emergencies.<\/p>\n
She wanted to use some of it to help pay the family's legal fees.<\/p>\n
I told her she did not have to do that.<\/p>\n
She shook her head.<\/p>\n
"I know."<\/p>\n
Then she smiled.<\/p>\n
"But I want to."<\/p>\n
I did not argue.<\/p>\n
I knew what it meant to her.<\/p>\n
Hattie had been her friend.<\/p>\n
And Lorraine had spent years watching people in Pell County lose things they could not afford to lose.<\/p>\n
The civil case continued for another six months.<\/p>\n
The court found that the property transfers had been obtained through fraud.<\/p>\n
The deeds were voided.<\/p>\n
The land was returned to the original owners or their heirs.<\/p>\n
In Hattie's case, the court ordered Pinecrest Holdings to return the forty-two acres to her estate.<\/p>\n
The company had already sold part of the land.<\/p>\n
The developer was ordered to restore the property or pay damages.<\/p>\n
The family received compensation for the years they had been deprived of their home.<\/p>\n
It was not enough to bring Hattie back.<\/p>\n
It was not enough to erase what had happened.<\/p>\n
But it was something.<\/p>\n
The day the order was entered, Evelyn called me.<\/p>\n
She was crying.<\/p>\n
"They gave us the land back."<\/p>\n
I closed my eyes.<\/p>\n
"Yes."<\/p>\n
"My mother's land."<\/p>\n
"Yes."<\/p>\n
She paused.<\/p>\n
Then she said, "She would have liked that."<\/p>\n
I smiled.<\/p>\n
"I think so."<\/p>\n
The next week, I drove to Cypress Creek Road.<\/p>\n
The land was quiet.<\/p>\n
The trees were tall.<\/p>\n
The old house was still standing.<\/p>\n
The porch needed repair.<\/p>\n
The windows were boarded up.<\/p>\n
But the land was theirs again.<\/p>\n
Evelyn stood beside me.<\/p>\n
She had brought a small bag of seeds.<\/p>\n
She opened it.<\/p>\n
Inside were tomato seeds.<\/p>\n
Her mother had saved them every year.<\/p>\n
Evelyn knelt beside the garden.<\/p>\n
She pressed the seeds into the soil.<\/p>\n
Then she stood.<\/p>\n
I looked at the house.<\/p>\n
The porch.<\/p>\n
The trees.<\/p>\n
The fence.<\/p>\n
The land.<\/p>\n
For the first time, I understood what Hattie had meant.<\/p>\n
The land remembered.<\/p>\n
And now, so did the law.<\/p>\n
Source: kaylestore.net<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n The civil lawyers examined the deed. They found the same handwritten number. It appeared on three other property transfers. All three involved people who had been arrested by Sheriff Voss. … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10808,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sharestory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10815"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10815\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10828,"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10815\/revisions\/10828"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onesharedstory.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nClick here to continue reading: PART 8: I Returned to the Magnolia Diner One Last Time, and the Sheriff\u2019s Empty Chair Reminded Me What Justice Was Supposed to Mean<\/a><\/strong><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"